side.
âGood-bye,â said Ellen, waving her handkerchief as the train started.
The train gathered speed and headed for the tunnel. It plunged in, engine and cars and lion, and the tunnel jumped and joggled. When the last two cars reappeared from the other side the lion was not on board.
âHe got off at Arabia,â said Ellen.
The train continued around the tracks by way of Greenland and Delaware Water Gap. It passed Ellen and the station without stopping and it headed for the tunnel again.
This time the tunnel bounced forward as the engine drove into it and the train came to a noisy stop, with its cars off the tracks.
Ellen turned off the electric control switch and crawled around to the tunnel. She lifted it and pulled the train forward, setting the cars on the rails. She turned the tunnel upside down to examine it, pried the lion out of it, and set it over the tracks again behind the train. She put the lion back on his stomach on the last two cars and returned to the station and the control switch.
The train started smoothly and picked up speed. A family of Eskimos in Greenland were surprised to see it go by with a lion riding on it.
âWhooooo!â said the train as it approached the station and began to slow down. âHere we come from Arabia!â
But before the train came to a stop the lionâs front paw hit the station roof. The roof fell off the station and the lion slid back on the tops of the cars and tumbled off the train.
With a little difficulty Ellen got the station roof back in place. Then she picked up the lion.
âWell, hello!â she said, shaking his front paw warmly. âHow was your trip to Arabia? What is it like there?â
The lion refused to say a word about it.
CLOSE ESCAPE
E llen screamed into the telephone.
âHelp! Thereâs a lion in my room!â
âWhere?â said the lion.
âYou!â Ellen pointed at him.
âMe? But Iâve always been here,â the lion said. âSince the Christmas before last.â
âYouâve got a tail with a brush on the end of it and a mane!â Ellen let her eyes grow wide. âI just realized youâre supposed to be a real lion!â
âI suppose so.â The lion sounded a bit annoyed. âWhat of it?â
Ellen stared at him with a terribly frightened expression on her face.
âWhat of it?â she repeated, in a trembling voice. âIf youâre supposed to be a real lion youâre supposed to eat people when youâre hungry.â
âYou are not in the least frightened of me, Ellen,â said the lion, losing patience. âYou know very well that a stuffed lion cannot be hungry and cannot possibly eat people.â
âYouâre stuffed, so you canât be hungry.â Ellen began to laugh and laugh. âThatâs a funny joke. Donât you see?â
The lion did not smile.
Ellen became serious too. She looked guiltily at the telephone as she set it on top of a heap of other toys.
âI donât blame you for being angry,â she said. âI should have asked you if you ate people before I called a policeman.â
âYou didnât call on a real telephone,â said the lion.
âBut I called a real policeman,â said Ellen. âHeâll be here any minute to take you away.â
The lion said nothing. Ellen rested her chin on a fist and thought.
âDonât worry, though,â she said. âIâll think of something.â
âI am not worried,â said the lion.
âWell, you ought to be,â Ellen said. âTheyâll put you in the zoo, in a cage. You wonât be able to get out, or go anywhere.â
âI never go anywhere anyway,â the lion said.
Ellen looked at the window. She jumped up and opened it wide.
âI know what,â she said. âIâll tell the policeman you went away. Iâll tell him you made a big leap out of the window. And you
C. J. Box
S.J. Wright
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Aven Ellis
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Betsy Ashton
Michael Williams
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Serenity Woods